Americans are playing poker online? Oh, the humanity!

Of the myriad policy crises churning on the horizon -- entitlement insolvency, illegal immigration and runaway federal spending among them -- congressional Republicans chose to spend the little political capital they have left on an Internet gambling ban.

With brick-and-mortar casinos in nearly every state and card games breaking into network television, millions of moralists found it unbearable that Americans were wagering about $6 billion per year on the Web. That their neighbors might be playing poker or placing sports bets from the comfort of their desk chairs demanded federal intervention. "Ban it!" they cried. "Misguided citizens will lose their homes! Their children will starve! Families will be destroyed!"

Never mind the folly of legislating leisure. (That Prohibition thing was a rousing success, wasn't it? And certainly, no sports wagering takes place outside of Nevada.) Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., was determined to please his base with a new law before November's election, no matter how flawed or misguided it might be.

Thank goodness we've got the GOP to look after this important issue for us.

The article addresses the offshore protectionism, but it doesn't address the onshore racketeering. The Feds are helping the states stomp out the competition with their state-run gambling monopolies (a.k.a. lotteries) and the heavily taxed and regulated state-sanctioned casinos.

The Reagan Revolution is well and truly dead. The Republicans have become the party of statism. So the question is, will they beat the Democrats to a complete implementation of an authoritarian state?